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Canada and Russia won their opening games in the World Hockey Championships on Saturday.na.

Also on Saturday, Slovakia beat Belarus 2-1 behind goals from Marian Hossa of the Ottawa Senators and Marian Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild, and Finland posted a 2-1 victory over Denmark as Niko Kapanen of the Dallas Stars scored the eventual game-winner.

The United States plays its first game on Sunday against Slovenia. The Americans are in the same four-team group as Canada and will meet their neighbors on Thursday in the final round-robin game.

The top three teams from each of the four groups will advance to the qualifying round next weekend.

Mike Modano and Mike Knuble each posted a goal and an assist to lead the United States to a 5-1 victory over Sweden in the qualifying round at the World Hockey Championships.na.

Johan Franzen scored the lone goal for the Swedes, while Henrik Lundqvist allowed the five goals on just 20 shots.

Knuble, of the Philadelphia Flyers, gave the Americans the lead when he scored on a rebound with 18 seconds left in the first period.

Stastny, a Boston Bruins' prospect and son of NHL Hall-of-Famer Peter Stastny, made it 2-0 at 6:21 of the second when he took a long pass from DiPietro and beat Lundqvist with a forehand. Cole, of the Carolina Hurricanes, added to the lead just 1:19 later. He took a pass from Knuble and raced down the left wing before beating the goaltender on the stickside.

The U.S. made it a blowout with two goals in just over a minute span in the third period. Modano, the longtime Dallas Star, scored at 7:39 of the period and Gionta of the New Jersey Devils made it 5-0 just 1:04 later.

The Swedes finally reached the scoreboard when Franzen scored at 10:23 of the third.

Sweden is off until Tuesday when they battle Latvia.

In other Group F action, Rick Nash and Patrick Marleau scored less than a minute apart in the third period to rally Canada to a 3-3 tie against Finland.

Just 16 hours after falling to Sweden on Saturday night, the Canadians were back on the ice and needed the late heroics to salvage a point.

Trailing 3-1 after Tomi Kallio scored for Finland at 6:19 of the third, Nash scored his eighth goal of the tournament just 2:39 later to pull Canada within one. The rising star of the Columbus Blue Jackets has scored in all five games for the Canadians.

Marleau, of the San Jose Sharks, tied it just 51 seconds later with a one- timer off a feed from Dallas' Brenden Morrow.

Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo gave New Jersey's Martin Brodeur a rest and made 28 saves for Canada.

In Group E, Russia defeated the Czech Republic, 2-1, and Slovakia had to rally for a 3-1 victory over Switzerland.

Alexander Semin of the Washington Capitals scored the game-winning goal for the Russians at 8:26 of the third period. New York Islanders center Alexei Yashin sent a pass towards the crease and Semin redirected the puck into the net with his skate. The goal stood because the referees determined there was no kicking motion.

The Slovaks trailed 1-0 before Miroslav Satan of the Buffalo Sabres converted a power play to tie it with 5:26 remaining in the second period. Marian Hossa of the Ottawa Senators then put his team ahead just under four minutes later when he banged home his own rebound.

Ziggy Palffy, an NHL unrestricted free agent, gave Slovakia a two-goal cushion at 4:12 of the third and Jan Lasak made it stand up with six saves in the final stanza.

Lasak finished with 17 stops for the Slovaks, who outshot the Swiss 41-18. Martin Gerber of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim made 38 saves in defeat.

Russia and the Czechs are tied atop the group with six points apiece, while Slovakia is next with five points.

Tomas Vokoun made 29 saves and three different players scored, as the Czech Republic captured the gold medal at the World Hockey Championships with a 3-0 victory over two-time defending champion Canada.

Vokoun, the netminder for the Nashville Predators, stopped 10 shots in the first period, 11 in the second and eight more in the third to lift the Czechs to their first world gold medal since 2001.

Vaclav Prospal scored early in the first period, before Martin Rucinsky and Josef Vasicek added goals in the third to ice it.

Martin Brodeur, who backstopped Canada to Olympic gold in 2002 and last summer's World Cup gold medal, finished with 24 saves in defeat.

Prospal gave the Czechs an early lead when he banged a shot past Brodeur just 4:13 into the contest, but the three-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender of the New Jersey Devils made a brilliant glove save on Jan Hlavac to keep it a one-goal game late in the opening stanza.

Vokoun was outstanding in the second period when he continued to keep Canada off the board, and the Czechs killed off a penalty to start the third.

Soon after Canada failed on the power play, the Czechs made it a 2-0 game when Rucinsky blasted a shot past Brodeur at the 3:12 mark.

The Canadians still couldn't solve Vokoun and gained a power play with 2:33 to play in the contest. Brodeur came out of the net a minute later for a 6-on-4 skating advantage, but Vasicek scored into the empty cage to seal it in the final minute.

The bronze medal went to Russia, which got a pair of early goals from Maxim Afinogenov and rolled to a 6-3 victory over Sweden earlier in the day.

Afinogenov found the net just 62 seconds into the contest and the Buffalo Sabres forward made it 2-0 at the 3:58 mark. The Russians never trailed from there to earn just their third medal since 1991 and first since a silver at the 2002 championships.

Alexander Ovechkin, the first overall pick of the 2004 NHL Draft by the Washington Capitals, added a goal and two assists for Russia. Alexei Kovalev, Alexei Yashin and Alexander Semin also scored goals in the victory.

The Russians, who were beaten by Canada in Saturday's semifinals for their first loss of the tournament, scored three goals in the first period and three in the second. The three second-period tallies came in a span of just over seven minutes and put the game away.

Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks were among the goal scorers for Sweden, which dropped a 3-2 decision in overtime to the Czech Republic in the semifinals.